My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 476: Kindness cannot lead to military success?

Liu Rong was well aware of Qin Zhuang's concerns.

There are a total of six versions of that thing since its initial development.

The first version, which is the initial version: No. A, is actually more symbolic than realistic.

In Liu Rong's words, it is just right to be made into firecrackers, and any further research will only have the future of fireworks.

The second version, the improved version: No. B, was an improvement over the first version, but was still limited.

To be precise, this Type B is more like "fuel" than explosives.

If you want an area to catch fire instantly or even explode, then it is wrong to use this No. 2 preparation.

But this deflagration is not like a deflagration - the word "deflagration" here only means that it burns quickly, but it has nothing to do with explosion.

It can be said that this second version of No. B does have a certain power, but it also took the wrong path.

The third version, number C, verified another incorrect line.

——You say it has little power, but it can really explode.

And it can really kill people!

But you want to say he is powerful?
It can only kill one person.

That's right.

'personal.

A clay pot as big as a head, with several kilograms of materials filled in it, the killing range after the explosion was only within ten feet!
Even within ten feet, it is impossible to kill the enemy, and can only ensure "serious injury".

If the range is beyond ten feet, even serious injuries cannot be inflicted - if you are close enough and lucky enough, you may be able to injure the opponent lightly, otherwise at most you will just break a layer of skin.

The first three versions made Liu Rong laugh and cry at that time.

——One is for fireworks, one is for murder and arson, and one is for targeted blasting;
What is this all about...

It was not until the fourth item: No. Ding, when Liu Rong instructed Qin Zhuang to prepare a killing weapon weighing one thousand kilograms, that the situation began to change slightly.

This Ding number is extremely powerful!

Every pound of raw material has a destructive power that can reach an area of ​​ten feet in radius!
If we add advanced parts like gravel to the pottery jar, it can ensure that both the enemy and us will be killed within a distance of seven feet from the center of the explosion!

It can still effectively kill within ten feet.

This is probably what Liu Rong wants.

——Although its power cannot be compared with those big killer weapons of the new era in later generations, it is almost as powerful as the modern throwing weapons in later generations.

Of course, due to the limitations of the times, the Ding Hao could not be made into a portable throwing item like in modern times.

It's not that it can't be done, but the explosive power of this Ding is supported by a higher amount of medicine.

Take for example the one thousand jin that Liu Rong had instructed us to divide into one thousand pottery jars, each weighing one jin.

One Han jin is equivalent to 250 grams in later times.

This is just the amount of medicine, and it does not include the gravel used as "auxiliary materials" and the clay pots used as containers.

Adding everything together, a clay jar containing one jin of Ding-grade explosives would weigh about fourteen Han jin, or about three kilograms in later times.

It is obviously a fantasy to ask a single soldier to throw such a heavy thing, especially when it is placed in a pottery jar.

So they could only use catapults, treating the clay pots as stones and throwing them in the direction of the enemy.

Of course, before the catapult could throw the jars out, they had to be set on fire first.

And the problem lies in this relief.

——First of all, as Liu Rong's "high explosive", this Ding No. is not stable during storage and transportation.

If it gets bumped, shaken, or bumped during transportation, we will not tolerate it at all and it will explode!

Even if you don't like him and just leave him there steadily, he may suddenly explode at you for some strange reason.

There could be temperature factors, or there could be squeezing effects between drugs - Liu Rong couldn't figure it out either.

But this thing is, after all, to be mass-produced by a national institution. Even in the trial stage, you can't use it pound by pound.

As a result, over the past year or so, Lubanyuan has experienced dozens of accidental explosions of No. D explosives, resulting in large-scale casualties and the subsequent fires.

If the dangers in the transportation and storage processes can be classified as failure to ensure adequate transportation safety and warehousing safety, then the problems in actual applications are the real limitations of the times.

——How to light a fire?

Most of the cans in a set are filled with black powder. If there is any spark, you will be doomed for life!
What should I do?
You can only put the pottery jar on the slingshot first, and then use the intermediate medium as a fire seal a moment before the slingshot is launched.

But this medium is really a headache.

Strip of cloth?

Since the pottery jar was full of gunpowder, the cloth strip could only be hung outside the pottery jar. After the pottery jar left the trebuchet, it would burn into the inside of the pottery jar little by little.

But the problem is: the pottery jar was thrown by the slingshot, it went all the way at a speed of lightning!

What kind of cloth strip can keep burning while "flying" along with the pottery pot?

If it were just that, that would be fine.

At worst, the Han family could think of a way to first set fire to the enemy's area with rockets, or use the Type B to burn a fire area, and then drop the Type D over there to achieve the effect of "exploding as soon as it lands".

But the bad thing is: it’s not that simple.

As mentioned earlier, during the transportation process and even the storage process, the Ding number is extremely unstable.

If it gets bumped, shaken, or even left there with high temperature or too much oxygen, it can all explode.

Then, the fatal thing came.

——When a clay pot filled with No. D explosives is thrown by a slingshot, from the moment it is thrown until it hits the ground, the entire process may cause an explosion due to the shock of the drug.

The best outcome, of course, is to explode on the ground.

But 'they' have a very strange temper, and they may not explode when they hit the ground. It will definitely be an embarrassing scene of the pottery jar breaking into pieces and gray-black powder scattering all over the ground.

The worst outcome would be an explosion the moment the trebuchet was launched.

If this situation occurs, the Han family will at least lose a catapult, a group of catapult operators, and the Mohists in charge of the experiment.

Guess how those Mohists died?

Do you really think they just play with black powder whenever they have time?
In Liu Rong's impression, the Mohists who died from the above-mentioned circumstances accounted for about half of the total death toll.

The other half isn't much better.

In some cases, the pottery jars were loaded onto the slingshots, but an accident caused the pottery jars to slip to the ground;

Some of the pottery jars were launched successfully, but they flew only three or five feet and exploded in the air, directly killing the entire catapult crew and the Mohist who was in charge of the experiment.

I can only say that this thing is very troublesome.

From the moment it is prepared until it explodes and turns to ashes between heaven and earth, troubles will not disappear, but will continue to come.

Just now, Liu Rong instructed Qin Zhuang to prepare a thousand kilograms of Dinghao.

In the process of procurement, it is highly likely that deaths cannot be avoided.

Even after the supplies are prepared and packed into ceramic jars, casualties cannot be completely avoided.

Everything was packed and ready for shipment, but the trouble was not over but had just begun.

Why did Liu Rong specifically instruct to package and distribute the 1,000-jin Dinghao goods in batches to be shipped to Bowang City?
Because the 'connectivity' of this thing is really, really, ridiculously high.

For example, in a warehouse, you have something weighing about 100 kilograms in two corners, and the two are about 180 steps apart.

If one end explodes, there's a chance that sparks will fly to the other end and explode that end as well.

It is for this reason that Qin Zhuang said: This thing really cannot be used.

Because if we really get to the front line, once this thing gets angry, our soldiers will really be stuck with nowhere to go.

Separate packaging, separate personnel, and separate transportation in batches are not essentially about avoiding accidents, but about reducing the scale of accidents and the noise they cause.

For example, if Liu Rong had not given specific instructions, this thousand-jin Dinghao would most likely have been loaded on the same carriage for shipment.

——It’s only one thousand jin, or about two hundred and fifty kilograms, enough for a horse-drawn cart!

But if this car exploded, the noise would not only be earth-shattering, but would definitely be regarded as a "natural disaster" level roar by the surrounding people.

Furthermore, even with such an explosion, it would be almost impossible for anyone in the team responsible for transportation to survive - it would even be unlikely for anyone to have an intact body.

Because the effective killing range of ten feet is the power possessed by the one-jin Dinghao.

And a 1000-jin Ding-type one is definitely not as simple as 10× zhang.

If something really happened, let's not talk about how to clean up the mess - to put it in a more recent situation, the 1,000-jin Ding-type weapon that was hard to equip was destroyed in an instant.

Seeing that Gao Que was about to start the fight, it was too late for Gao Que to adjust his position. Gao Que could not count on a dimensionality reduction attack and could only bite the bullet and attack head-on.

Taking a longer-term view, the families of the deceased need to be comforted, the surrounding areas need to be explained, and even the thing itself will most likely not be hidden.

If you're lucky, everyone inside and outside the court will know about it. At worst, you can make the project public: Well, my Han family has such a thing, and it's extremely powerful.

If you are unlucky, this thing will flow out of the border and into the grassland...

Liu Rong didn't dare to think about it.

This 1,000-jin Dinghao cargo was divided into 1,000 parts, and 1,000 people were responsible for transporting each part to Bowang City. This did not essentially reduce the possibility of accidents.

The possibility of accidents has even increased significantly due to the increase in the number of people and uncontrollable factors.

The only reason why Liu Rong did this was that it was divided into batches, so even if it exploded, the scale could be controlled.

——One batch is only one kilogram!

If there is an explosion, the worst that can happen is that a few people will die, which is better than a large number of people dying and a large area being razed to the ground.

Plus a roar that was shocking but not incomprehensible, it was relatively easy to deal with.

The crime scene can be cleaned up and covered up, and confidentiality work can still be continued.

As for the final loss - according to Liu Rong's most optimistic estimate, the 1,000-jin Dinghao cargo that departed from Chang'an and was eventually successfully delivered to Bowang City would most likely not exceed 800 jin.

From being transported to Bowang City, to going to the battlefield and launching catapults - to the sound of roars echoing from the outer wall of Gaoque, it is likely that less than half of them were able to damage Gaoque.

Therefore, what Liu Rong mentioned as "one thousand jin" actually meant: to ensure that there is a thousand jin of Dinghao that can explode on the top of Gaoque Wall.

As for how much material needed to be shipped from Chang'an in order to blow up the Gaoque wall with this thousand-jin Dinghao - Liu Rong did not say it explicitly, but Qin Zhuang certainly understood.

It’s not that Liu Rong wanted to play tricks, but he didn’t want to say such cruel words, and it was not convenient for him to say them out loud.

——Of the one thousand kilograms, less than half was delivered to the battlefield, which means that at least five hundred people died on the way of transportation!
This is calculated based on the assumption that only one person dies for every clay pot exploded!

In fact, it is almost impossible for a single person to transport such a powerful weapon.

Even if you are careful and cautious along the way and keep your distance, it is difficult to guarantee that there will not be a second or third person within the explosion range when an accident occurs.

Therefore, Liu Rong's casual words to cause a thousand-jin Dinghao to explode outside Gaoque may have resulted in the loss of at least a thousand lives.

If they were smart, it could have been thousands of lives.

But it is impossible to completely avoid death...

"Just now, Qin Zhuang said 'it's not stable yet'."

"That is to say, Luban Garden has roughly found its direction."

"Change the ratio?"

“Or change the storage method?”

Sitting in the carriage returning to Chang'an, Liu Rong had a lot of thoughts in his mind, but he had almost no clue.

——Even as a time traveler, Liu Rong was not an expert in thermal weapons or a master of blasting in his previous life.

It is already very rare to be able to remember a rough ratio and a few main ingredients.

More often than not, Liu Rong could only leave it to professionals to figure out, even at the cost of human lives.

Liu Rong could easily accept the principle that a kind person cannot command an army and could convince himself of it.

But Liu Rong was too embarrassed to classify this kind of death as 'death in battle', nor could he console himself by saying 'a merciful army is unfit for service'.

To be precise, this is a laboratory accident or a production accident.

Under the premise that the experiment must be done, it is indeed unavoidable.

But to take a step back - as long as the experiment is no longer needed, as long as Liu Rong no longer wants this number Ding, then no one will ever have to die because of it.

Sometimes, Liu Rong himself would doubt: Was I wrong?
Shouldn't we be doing this kind of thing?
Does not respect the background of the times, go against the trend, and pursue advanced products that the times do not allow or cannot support be considered as being eager for quick success and instant benefits, or even "reckless"?
Whenever such years appear in his mind, Liu Rong comforts himself: This is unavoidable. These are the inevitable sacrifices that must be made for the progress of civilization.

What else can be done?

What else can Liu Rong do except lie to himself and comfort himself like this?

"Ugh……"

"It is said that one general can make a thousand bones wither."

"Little did we know that even an emperor with great talent and strategy, whose achievements in civil and military affairs are unmatched in history, could not avoid some..."

"Ugh……"

...

"I hope the battle of Gaoque will go more smoothly because of this..."

"I hope these pioneers did not sacrifice in vain. I hope that in this battle, my Han family can get back enough because of their sacrifice to prove that they are worth it..."

(End of this chapter)